I've just returned from a family holiday in Australia - we flew with Etihad in business class from MAN-AUH-SYD and MEL-AUH-MAN. This was booked back in January and having read this forum in recent weeks, I was nervously wondering what I'd done and what to expect. In the event, I was really impressed - key take outs for me:

1) Etihad's business class hard and soft products are streets ahead of BA

2) There is less difference in the quality of the hard product between the 777 and A380 than I was expecting. Yes the A380 is newer and shinier but the 3x777s I flew on were not far behind and, in some respects, I actually preferred the fact that the business cabin was smaller, seemed more roomy and airy plus all of the seats were forward facing.

3) food and drink on all legs was good and exceeded my expectations

4) the lounges that we used (all Etihad lounges in Manchester, Melbourne and the business lounge in Abu Dhabi T3) were all excellent, welcoming and with plenty of space. I showered at Abu Dhabi both ways and availability of a shower required a maximum of a 10 minute wait for a cubicle to become free. The showers could do with some ventilation / air con, however, as it gets hot in there!

5) the only obvious cutback I could see was the lack of an amenity kit of the MAN-AUH flight (the daytime flight that departs Manchester at 9am). That said, it seemed that where amenity kits were offered on other flights, large numbers of people left them on board at the end of the flight, so I can understand how these could be seen by management as an unnecessary expense.

6) all flights were on time, with high loads, and all bags made it through the transfer process at Abu Dhabi. Also I did feel that we were made to feel special as business class passengers. The only minor gripe is that the priority tags on the suitcases of premium cabin travelllers seemingly meant very little in terms of speedy delivery based on the evidence of the baggage belts...

7) Abu Dhabi airport seems a little chaotic and there seems to be no rhyme nor reason as to whether you will arrive into / depart from T1 or T3 (unless you are on an A380 that needs the special gates)

8) the transfer process at Abu Dhabi is a bit of a lottery. On the way out, they opened up a lane in T1 for business class customers.....on the way back, our flight seemed to have arrived at the same time as a couple of others and it was a free for all with one long snaking line. It did move quickly, however, as the security guys seemed to be simply going through the motions (e.g they were happy for us to leave iPads and liquids in our hand luggage bags).

9) when we booked the holiday in early 2017, I registered us all for Etihad Guest under a family account - it's great to see the miles have posted quickly, we got silver status on the back of the return UK to Aus trip and, even better, there is a really wide range of things to spend the miles on....including a 10% discount offer at the moment in the reward shop.

All in all, it didn't reek of an airline in freefall that's penny pinching at every opportunity, as some on here would lead you to believe. Clearly it's just my opinion, but I thought it only fair to provide a bit of balance.